Extreme hunger in east Africa and the Sahel: forewarned but not forearmed

“Pictures of starving children give donors an instant justification to release aid. Predictions of starvation, however accurate, do not,” writes Andrew Wander of Save the Children in the Guardian. He urges aid agencies, donors and UN agencies to change their attitude towards poverty: he asks them to focus more on prevention, rather than on disaster response. He asserts that “in a system where drama, urgency and clear need so often justify requests for funding, it is no surprise that the qualified predictions from early warning systems fail to have the same impact.” Wander warns that in east Africa drought, food insecurity and ongoing conflicts are bound to cause yet another disaster.

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